Industrial waste containers are designed to be picked up by the pick-up arms of conventional front end loader garbage trucks. The pick-up arms are received by a pair of sleeves disposed on either side of the industrial waste container. As the industrial waste container is lifted over the garbage truck and consequentially rotated, the lid of the industrial waste container opens and garbage within the industrial waste container falls into the garbage truck. This system requires that as the industrial waste container is rotated to an inverted position, the lid be able to release.
At the same time, it is desirable to be able to lock industrial waste containers, both to prevent unauthorized access to the garbage, and to prevent contamination of the contents of the industrial waste container. Contamination is a particular problem where products are being re-cycled.
Automatic lid locking systems have been proposed to enable the lid of an industrial waste container to be automatically unlocked by the approach of a garbage truck. Examples are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,182,530 to Hodge; U.S. Pat. No. 3,687,317 to Gagel; U.S. Pat. No. 4,155,584 to Pracchia; U.S. Pat. No. 4,456,141 to Pamment; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,088,071 to Cruse et al. Hodge's mechanism is activated by the garbage truck pressing on a plate at the front of the industrial waste container. Gagel's mechanism is activated by the entry of the pick-up arms of the garbage truck into the sleeve of the industrial waste container.
However, there is not believed to exist a locking device that is activated by the entry of the pick-up arms into the sleeve of the industrial waste container and that combines with that either the feature of enabling the locking mechanism to be manually operated independently of the means that activates the locking device upon entry of the pick-up arms into the sleeves or the feature of including a device that helps prevent the manual operation of the means that activates the locking device.
The inventor has therefore provided a lid locking device for an industrial waste container, in which the industrial waste container includes a lid and a pair of sleeves capable of receiving the pick-up arms of a vehicle, that includes:
a plate rotatably disposed adjacent one of the sleeves such that the plate rotates on entry of a pick-up arm into the sleeve;
a locking mechanism attached to the lid;
actuation means responsive to the rotation of the plate to engage and disengage the locking mechanism; and
biasing means to bias the actuation means to the engaged position.
In another aspect of the invention, the lid locking device also includes means to prevent manual levering of the plate. The sleeve of the lid locking device may include an outside wall and a first end, the plate being rotatable about a pivot external to the sleeve adjacent the first end. In this case, the plate extends into the sleeve to a point of contact with the outside wall of the sleeve, and the means to prevent manual levering of the plate includes a barrier extending inwardly from the outside wall between the point of contact and the first end.
The actuation means preferably includes a swinging arm, and the locking mechanism a fixed flange secured to the lid and a movable bolt, with the swinging arm including means for engaging the bolt; and the bolt being manually slidable from a first position in which the bolt may be secured to the fixed flange with the bolt engaging the swinging arm and to a second position in which the bolt is disengaged from the swinging arm.